Aircraft vehicles include hydraulic servo control systems that control one or more adjustable surface components such as, for example, the ailerons, rudders, and elevators. Conventional hydraulic servo control systems are based on an analog electronic topology comprising various analog electronic devices to measure one or more analog signals that indicate a current position of the surface component among a plurality of possible adjustable positions. The analog signal is then compared to an analog setpoint value (e.g., an analog voltage). The error between the analog signal and the analog setpoint value is determined, and the surface components are actively adjusted to maintain a minimum error.
The analog devices utilized to generate and measure the analog signals are susceptible to temperature changes. Consequently, as the aircraft realizes different temperatures during flight operations, various characteristics of the analog devices (e.g., gain, error, and phase margin) can vary, thereby reducing the accuracy of the analog control system. In addition, conventional analog control systems typically require multiple power sources to power the individual analog components and to define the analog setpoint values. Consequently, analog control systems are typically viewed as requiring increased power such that the overall power efficiency of the aircraft is reduced.